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Letters from page 6

Helen Thomas' Hypocrisy
Helen Thomas' rant is based on two
issues: Jews came to "Palestine" illegally
and thus they should "get the hell out
of Palestine... Go home...to Poland,
Germany..." (Robert Sklar's Editor's
Letter, "Helen Thomas' Slander of Jews;'
Dec. 9, page 5).
This attitude is wrong because Jews
have lived in Palestine for ages; in the
last 1,000 years, they were about a
third of the Jerusalem community
under Ottoman rule.
Immigration of Jews from the 19th
century on was associated with similar
Arab immigration.
More important is the issue of Christian
Arabs in Muslim countries. The Christians
of Lebanon — Maronites, Orthodox and
others, including Protestants — num-
ber about 1.5 million, the remnant of
a Christian nation that resisted Islamic
conquerors for 13 centuries. Since 1969,
hundreds of thousands of them have been
massacred, displaced or exiled.
Since 1990, the end of the Lebanese
civil war, Christian areas of Lebanon
have been under Syrian occupation;
Christians in the north and central parts
have been systematically politically and
socially oppressed. Hundreds have been
arrested, tortured and jailed by pro-
Syrian forces. In the south of Lebanon,
Hezbollah has constantly bombarded
thousands of Christians.
Thousands of Lebanese Christians
fled when Israel pulled out of Lebanon
in 2000; 160,000 of them immigrated to
Israel.
Where was Helen Thomas, whose
parents immigrated to America from
Lebanon, all these years? Those who gave
her a standing ovation in Dearborn on
Dec. 2 effectively lauded her hypocrisy,
considering the plight of Lebanese
Christians.

Isaac Barr, M.D.

Bloomfield Hills

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Linda Stulberq

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8

December 23 • 2010

CAIR has been linked to Hamas in addi-
tion to being an unindicted co-conspirator
in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism
financing case — and with whom the FBI
formally suspended relations.
Meanwhile, the Keith Center's inaugural
one-day Pan-Ethnic Civil Rights Film
Festival highlighted "USA vs. Al-Arian"
(Sami Al-Arian was the former University
of South Florida professor who in 2006
pleaded guilty to a charge of conspir-
ing to provide services to Palestinian
Islamic Jihad, a U.S.-designated terror-
ist organization). The festival included
participation by the Arab American Anti-
Discrimination Committee. Where was
the inclusion of Jewish groups and films
spotlighting hate, bias and discrimination
against Jews?
According to just-released FBI Hate
Crime Statistics, the overwhelming
preponderance of religious-based hate
crimes in this country — 71 percent —
target Jews, a factor of more than eight
times what Muslims experience.
Given that campus anti-Semitism
nationally — including cases of violent
assaults — is accelerating at an alarming
pace, the Keith Center and Wayne State
should demonstrate their commitment
to civil rights and tolerance by sponsor-
ing programming on this dangerous
threat to Jewish students and the broader
community.
It would also seem incumbent upon
the Keith Center to join the campaign
to guarantee Jewish students civil rights
safeguards. Susan Tuchman, director of
the Zionist Organization of America's
Center for Law and Justice, which is
spearheading the national effort to
extend Title VI civil rights protections
to Jewish students, would make an ideal
speaker. It is unthinkable that four
decades after Jews stood on the front
lines of the Civil Rights movement to
assure rights for black Americans, Jewish
students do not enjoy the same legal
protections.

Jewish Student Protections
Wayne State University in Detroit has a
unique opportunity — and responsibil-
ity — to move beyond symbolic gesture
to ensure that the toxic bile of Helen'
Thomas' anti-Semitic rants finds no quar-
ter on its campus or classrooms (Robert
Sklar's Editor's Letter, "Helen Thomas'
Slander of Jews," Dec. 9, page 5).
Wayne State Um' ersity Law &hoofs
tecendy-opened Damon J. Keith Center
for ad Riglts, largely ftmded by Jewish
phianduupistLAIred Taubman, has co-
hosted an event on "Islamaphobia" by the
executive director of the Michigan chapter
of Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Despite denying any terrorist ties,

Farmington Hills

Corrections
•"Art From The Heart" (Dec. 9, page 61)
should have listed Lezlie Mostyn as a
co-chair.
•"Hand in Hand" (Teen2Teen, page B2,
Dec. 16) was co-authored by Madeleine
Warshay of Oak Park and Hannah
Korelitz of Huntington Woods, both
15 and students at Akiva Hebrew Day
School in Southfield.
• Lexi Smith, author of "Cherished
Summers" (Teen2Teen, page B4, Dec.
16), is a sophomore at Frankel Jewish
Academy in West Bloomfield.

